Often Feel Bloated? One Ingredient May Be to Blame

WEDNESDAY, July 3, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- If you often feel bloated after a meal, don't be too quick to blame high-fiber foods. The real culprit might surprise you.

Your gut may be rebelling because you're eating too much salt, a new study suggests.

"Sodium reduction is an important dietary intervention to reduce bloating symptoms and could be used to enhance compliance with healthful high-fiber diets," said study researcher Noel Mueller, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Related Articles

He and his research colleagues looked at data from a large clinical trial conducted in the late 1990s known as Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension-Sodium, or DASH-Sodium for short.

Their conclusion: Consuming a lot of salt increases bloating, as does a healthy, high-fiber diet.

Although it's not clear exactly how salt contributes, Mueller suspects fluid retention may be the key. Eating more salt can promote water retention and make digestion less efficient, which can lead to gas and bloating, he said.

Studies in mice have shown that dietary salt can alter the makeup of gut bacteria. And that, in turn, can affect gas production in the colon, Mueller said.

"Our study suggests that selecting foods with lower sodium content, such as those that are not ultra-processed, may help relieve bloating in some people," he said.

Bloating affects as many as a third of Americans, including more than 90% of those with irritable bowel syndrome. It's a painful buildup of excess gas created as gut bacteria break down fiber during digestion.

For the current study, the researchers used findings from a 1998-1999 trial. In that trial, the DASH diet -- one low in fat and high in fiber, fruits, nuts and veggies -- was compared with a low-fiber eating regimen. The trial's goal was to learn how salt and other factors affected high blood pressure.

The new review found that about 41% on the high-fiber diet reported bloating, and men had a bigger problem with it than women. And diets high in salt increased the odds of bloating by 27%.

The upshot is that reducing sodium can be an effective way to prevent gas -- and may help people maintain a healthy, high-fiber eating regimen.

Many things can cause bloating -- lactose intolerance, celiac disease, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, infection or other conditions, said Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Langone Health.

"If someone is experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating on an ongoing basis, they should see their health care practitioner to see if the cause can be pinned down," said Heller, who wasn't involved with the study. "This way they will know how to manage the issue."